Thanks all,
Yes, the seller was a very nice guy. I felt very sorry for him; having invested so much emotionally and financially and not being able to complete the job through no fault of your own must be difficult. Fortunately we are based very close to him, so I'm hopeful of a 'reunion' when it's complete.
Derek - haha, you are not wrong! On more than one occasion yesterday, I thought I'd become part of The Matrix and my only purpose in life was to remove tar from the underneath of a car...
Nothing more to report other than about a 1/3 of it is done.
Cheers...